Encountering God’s Mercy

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,  

As we celebrate the liturgical season of Lent, and prepare for the great joy of Easter, we find ourselves in what Pope Francis calls “a privileged moment to celebrate and experience God’s mercy.” 

In Misericordiae Vultus (“The Face of Mercy”), he singles out the season of Lent as perhaps the most appropriate time for us to “rediscover the merciful face of the Father,” which is a great mystery of our faith (#17). 

The word of God reveals the merciful face of the Father in virtually every passage of the Old and New Testaments. “How many pages of sacred Scripture are appropriate for meditation during the weeks of Lent,” the Holy Father exclaims. He urges us to make our own the words of the prophet Micah:  

You, O Lord, are a God who takes away iniquity and pardons sin, who does not hold your anger forever, but are pleased to show mercy. You, Lord will return to us and have pity on your people. You will trample down our sins and toss them into the depths of the sea (Mi 7:18-19). 

During Lent, by our acts of penitence and charity, we allow God to utterly crush our sins and cause them to be swept away by the ocean of divine mercy! But it is not our actions that “trample down our sins and toss them into the depths of the sea.” It is the grace of God, the merciful Father, that causes the effects of sin to be crushed and swept away so that we can live freely and share in the abundance of God’s love. 

Continue reading Cardinal Joseph Tobin’s latest newsletter.